Do "fad diets" work?

Good question

I think I've tried just about every single one of them over the years. Some of them worked, some of them didn't, and after studying nutrition for a while (I am not an accredited dietitian BTW) I can honestly say that for me - it can't be a - go on a diet, lose some weight - stop dieting and hope for the best anymore. 

For me, and lets face it - for all of us, our diet needs to fit our particular lifestyles. I am not a crossfitter or a training athlete, I exercise daily for a number of reasons, one is so that I can get to 90 and still be able to stand on one leg and put my knickers on. There are many other reasons of course - I want my legs and butt to look better, I want to get into my smaller clothes and I want to bolster my mental health. Getting lost in some physical activity can take me away from the stresses and strains of the day and into my mind and my body. As a result I work better, my writing is crisper and my clients get a better result than had I sat on my rear end and not moved. Something I have been guilty of while working a full-time job in an office environment.

To be honest - being made redundant earlier this year has been amazing. Yes I was one of the many people impacted by redundancies due to Covid-19 - but I've had a personal business for a few years, so when it happened this year, we turned the pipeline on. (www.perthresumewriter.com.au)

Having to change routines - drastically - made me look at other areas of my life that weren't working. 

I had made the decision at the start of the year that I needed to do something about my girth. Sitting down for most of the day meant that I had gained some weight, but I knew that to get rid of it again I needed to look at both the diet and the exercise.

Working from home meant that I could do more exercise, and I did that through adding sets of weights between each client job that I was working on. 

So what was left was the diet. I no longer needed to buy stuff for my kids as they had both moved out of the family home into their own places. With only myself to buy for, I needed to look at what had worked in the past and what I could hope would work now - older, hopefully wiser. So I looked into the nutrition and have come up with my own version of protein / keto / Mediterranean. My diet is very colourful with adequate protein and good fats - olive oil and avocado. 

While the weight loss has been slow (deliberately) I am now in at least 2 sizes smaller clothes and I take fortnightly photographs, something I have never done on a regular basis before.

I got on the scale and saw that I was hitting numbers I haven't seen in a while which is pretty awesome. And the diet is easy - it's my way of life. 

p.s. I've just bought a blueberry bush for the garden 

Update on 22 Sep 2020 by Editor

I forgot to mention the numbers - and I'm also trying not to get bogged down with the number on the scale, preferring the non scale victories of getting into smaller clothes etc. But this morning I hit a number I haven't seen for a while...

Weight loss since Jan 18 = 2.9 kilos - like I said it isn't a lot, but its going in the right direction.

Size lost = I only take 3 measurements. Waist, Chest, Belly Button / Hips

I started just measuring the waist, this is one area I need to lose the most size, figuring if this was shrinking then the rest of me would follow... it was slow going at first, so I added two other measurements in later.

Total waist reduction = 4” (Jan 18 - present)

Total Chest Reduction = 3” (May 31 - present)

Total BB Reduction = 2.5” (May 31 - present)

So in reality it is a lot more than 9.5" and my clothes can certainly attest to that.

My take aways from this are

1. Remember it has taken me a lot of years to get to the size I was, I was not going to get rid of it all in 5 minutes, 5 weeks or even 5 months.
2. It's not a diet, it's a way of life. My old way of life was not working, my new way of life is.
3. Be kind to yourself - always.